Mother sentenced in daughter's July 2004 death

She receives 55-year term for neglect of 3-year-old.

She receives 55-year term for neglect of 3-year-old.

December 17, 2005

GOSHEN (AP) -- A judge sentenced a woman to 55 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to neglect in the death of her 3-year-old daughter. Dusty James, 21, testified in Elkhart Superior Court that she let her boyfriend care for her two young children even though she had watched him abuse them. TaraNova Glick, 3, was pronounced dead at Elkhart General Hospital on July 13, 2004, after her mother took her to the emergency room. Her brother, Israel Glick Jr., suffered severe injuries and was placed in foster care where he remains. "She observed her paramour abuse both of these children, not once but repeatedly," said Judge George Biddlecome. "Yet she took no steps to protect these children." James did not speak during her sentencing Thursday. Her attorney, Juan Garcia, said James was afraid to leave her boyfriend, Chad Strong, 26, who was not the children's father. "She has to live with the fact that her child's dead," Garcia said. James testified she watched Strong hit her son in the head in July 2004, but she did not seek treatment for the boy, who was eventually hospitalized. Doctors said the incident had resulted in a skull fracture. About two weeks later, James let Strong baby-sit her daughter, even though she had seen him physically abuse the girl. Strong was sentenced to 115 years in prison earlier this month. He told police that he had been asleep when TaraNova's crying woke him. He said he put his knee in the child's abdomen and held her head with both hands to make her stop. The force ripped a section of the child's small intestine, according to evidence presented at the trial.